In the following essay, Janik explores the interaction between history and the Here and Now in Waterland.

On one level, Waterland is a series of history lessons, the lessons Crick teaches in the last few weeks before he is forced into early retirement after thirty-two years. As such, they are often wildly inappropriate: the nominal topic of his class is the French Revolution, but he alludes to it rarely, only to illustrate a point about the family and personal events that form most of the narrative's substance. On another level, Waterland is a manifestation of man's need to tell stories to keep reality under control, and Crick can be seen in much the same light as Prentis, a man telling his story in an attempt to cope with its implications.

The novel's structure is rambling and recursive, intermixing episodes from three major elements. The first of these...